Posted on 12/25/2006 9:13:03 AM PST by rellimpank
He says expired gift card money should flow to treasury
Incoming freshman Assemblyman Ruben Kihuen, a Las Vegas Democrat, would like to see expiring gift card money flow to the state treasury by defining it as abandoned property. Photo by Jeff Scheid.
CARSON CITY -- Incoming freshman Assemblyman Ruben Kihuen went out to dinner with a friend recently, planning to use a $100 gift card he had received last year as a Christmas gift to pay for the meal.
To Kihuen's dismay, the gift card had expired, meaning the high-end restaurant that issued the card had received a $100 windfall at the expense of the gift card giver.
Kihuen, a Las Vegas Democrat, said he would like to change this practice and instead have expired gift card money flow to the state treasury by defining it as abandoned property.
If a merchant has no address
(Excerpt) Read more at reviewjournal.com ...
You seem to be the one showin your ass
Coffee of the Day
Regular and Decaf $1.40 $1.60 $1.70
Caffé Latte
Espresso & steamed milk $2.55 $3.10 $3.40
Caffé Americano
Espresso & hot water $1.75 $2.05 $2.40
White Chocolate Mocha
White chocolate flavored version of our classic Caffé Mocha $3.20 $3.75 $4.00
Caffé Mocha
Espresso, cocoa, steamed milk & whipped cream $2.75 $3.30 $3.55
Cappuccino
Espresso, steamed & foamed milk $2.55 $3.10 $3.40
Caramel Macchiato
Foamed milk marked with espresso, vanilla & real caramel $2.80 $3.40 $3.65
And enjoying Starbuck's fine coffees while I live an enjoyable life that doesn't require my being a fulltime crank.
Do you know the difference between a cup of coffee and an expresso or any of the other drinks you listed?
pardon me, whilst I slink back into the shadows of my inferiority and hide my hideous self from your lofty view
No reason to retreat, just support your position if it can be supported.
Avoid all foods and beverages in which the preparation resembles a high school chemistry lab experiment.
Why yes, I DO know the difference between a cup of coffee and espresso and lattes
Do they not sell a $4 drink?( with coffee as the main ingredient)
Am I not entitled to the opinion that my experience with Starbucks was unfavorable?
Am I required to like it?
Perhaps there should be a Federal Program to teach us rubes about the the importance of being tolerant of ones coffee preferences.
I understand that, I was going for a one word description. Sell probably would do the job just as well.
Now that they expire there's good money in it. You know back in the old days before the cards and the expiration they didn't push gift certificates. Also it gets money in they otherwise wouldn't get, the way they figure it you don't know what to get the person so if there wasn't the gift card you probably wouldn't be buying anything, at least not anything from there. It's always better to get money in, even if it comes with some level of papertrail baggage, than to not get money in.
No need to defend yourself, you were just laying out the logic, and not endorsing it.
I went a little further, and explained the underlying theory, which is that many believe that everything, especially money (or the value thereof) belongs to the government, not to those of us who earned it.
I called in to a local talk show some years back. The subject was non-profits and how the are stealing from the government by not paying taxes.
When I pointed out to the proponent of that belief that the underlying theory for that was that everything belongs to the government first, and then to those of us who earned it. It was fun to hear him dance and sing until he was able to get me off the air so he could change the subject back to his bogus theory of theft.
I totally agree with your view of the phone companies. Verizon stuck it to me about 1.5 years ago when I changed companies. I told them I would never be back. I don't really trust my present company but at least I do not presently have a binding contract.
Verizon adds a year to service contract when you call them about anything locally. How do you prove you did not verbally agree to a contract extension???
It's not an account receivable, it's an account payable, the store owes somebody (although they probably don't know who) merchandise in exchange for pre-spent money.
Each account is small and simple, the problem is how they stack up, let's say 25% of all gift cards are never redeemed, and you own a store and your store sells 100 every year. At the end of 10 years you have 250 of these accounts, sitting on your computer, taking up space. And the outstanding liability those accounts represents is stacking up top, if you're averaging $50 a certificate you owe $12,500 worth of merch, to random people you don't know who they are. That's going to look pretty bad on the old P&L statement. And that's just one store selling a mere 100 cards a year, escalate that up to WalMart level and you see something that can cause a major accounting headache.
Just because some businesses choose to suffer the headache doesn't mean it's not a headache. It just means they've decided the good PR and customer satisfaction they get from their suffering is worth the headache, their business, their call to make. But the vast majority of businesses that do gift cards don't want the headache.
The shortest timeframe I've seen is Borders which after two years of total non-use loses a couple bucks a month until it eventually zeroes out. Perfectly reasonable, anybody who hasn't used the card at all in two years won't, they probably don't even have it anymore. There's nothing greedy about wanting clean books, and using perjoratives like that just shows you don't want to understand what life is like on the other side of the counter.
There's nothing unethical about this behavior. It's perfectly reasonable to not want to carry millions of dollars in unresolvable liability. It's not like they expire them in 30 days, it's 2 to 5 YEARS before the businesses even start the process of expiring the card. If you can't manage to spend fifty free bucks at Borders in two years, why should they incur the bookkeeping expense waiting for you to finally walk through the door? It's obvious you won't, and they have better things to do with their harddrive space and accountants time than wait for you to suddenly say "woh I've got a Borders card from the Clinton adminitration, I better go spend it".
Funny you should mention non-profits. Because I was thinking maybe unclaimed property should go to them but then again...I'm not thinking.
Jesse's "Rainbow Coalition" might get it all, heh.
As for unclaimed gift cards, as the original thread was about you should smile, I'd argue that so long as there is an unclaimed property law than they SHOULD be turned over to the government.
But I dunno, I sure wouldn't want to try and enforce such a thing.
Just wondering if there is enough of this unclaimed gift certificate business to justify putting even one gov't tax clerk on the job.
Remember, it was "Turds" like this that felt Waitresses and Valets made too much tax-free tip money.....
Good question.
It doesn't matter. Obviously you do not live in Delaware.
For this one government tax clerk would be a friend of some local politico or another. The job would be a reward for stellar service on the campaign.
It's no matter that a $30K a year employee brings in revenue of only $10K. The gubment is NOT a private business. State governments are notorious for this nonsense.
Sheesh, I gotta tell you people everything.
I am in Alaska, and we regularly vote down any form of taxation whatsoever whenever possible.
I know what you mean. It's great to know that the politicians are looking out for OUR money. If they can come up with a way to make it THEIR money, they will.
"I'd like to see this little bass turd go on TV and explain to people why he thinks the government deserves to get this money. Just one reason."
He'll screech "It's for the CHILDREN!!!!"
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